Mudita is a wonderful practice.
It's one that,
In my view and observation,
Isn't taught as much in the West as,
For example,
Metta is,
Which is also one of the Brahma-viharas.
The Brahma-viharas are the heart practices.
Brahma-viharas actually translates as divine abode,
So a divine place that one can rest and inhabit.
The reason that I like Mudita is that we're working really with empathetic joy.
We're contacting,
Connecting with another person's joy or good fortune or success,
And we're not only are we supporting their good fortune and success,
But we're also being afforded the opportunity while we support their success to see how fully open are we to their joy,
Their good fortune.
Are we unrestricted,
Open-hearted in that feeling of goodwill and good fortune for them?
This helps really illuminate for us the issues that we're going to have,
Particularly around the resistances,
Which are envy and jealousy.
And then also what's similar to Mudita,
But not Mudita,
Is comparing their good fortune to our good fortune,
Insincerity in our good wishes,
And grasping for the pleasant.
We've all been through those times.
We've been insincere in our good wishes for someone.
We're really duty-bound to wish them well,
But we really don't have our heart in it.
So there's a holding back and a kind of begrudged attitude that we have towards that.
And then the grasping for the pleasant is we're simply trying to eliminate what's unpleasant and constantly bring in what we feel to be pleasant and what makes us feel good.
With all the Brahma Viharas,
There's always a meditative object,
And we do our best in meditation to stay with that object throughout the meditation without significant interruption.
And everything else becomes a lesser choice,
Meaning we prioritize the meditative object over everything else.
So if our mind is producing thoughts,
If we're hearing environmental noise,
If we're feeling body pain or discomfort,
All of that is prioritized to be of lower interest to us.
And that's the big difference between concentration meditation and,
Say,
Vipassana or insight meditation where what's most predominant is the object.
And then there are phrases to be with.
In Mudita,
We start off by picturing either in our mind's eye a picture of a friend,
Someone who is easy for us to be happy or to wish for their happiness to continue.
And if you're not someone who's a visual meditator,
What's it like to be around someone in your life like that where you really want them to be successful and are happy when they're happy?
What does that feel like to you?
So that's the feeling you want to get in touch with for the meditation.
And there's a traditional phrase that is continue to be happy and content.
And we use the phrases while we're staying with the picture of this good friend who is easy to be happy for.
We repeat the phrase silently to help us stay with the picture or the felt sense of that dear friend.
And that's what the support phrase is for,
Is to help us stay focused on the object,
Which is the other's happiness,
But which to start with the person.
The alternate phrases,
If the first phrase doesn't appeal to you,
I have three alternate phrases.
Good fortune,
Continue,
Increase and never wane.
Another alternate phrase,
Happiness,
Not diminish.
And a third,
Happy for your happiness.
So whichever of those sounds like one that evokes what you feel,
That's the one you want to pick.
And in doing Brahma Viharas,
We also have a category of being,
Sort of a list of different groups that we'll do them for in a certain sequence.
And in Mudita,
We start with the friend,
As I mentioned,
The person who's happy to be happy for.
And then we work with a benefactor,
A neutral person after that,
A difficult person,
And then all beings.
We don't do Mudita for ourselves.
We normally do gratitude practice for ourselves.
So we'll go ahead and do the meditation now.
Go ahead and get yourself in your meditation posture.
Figure out who you're going to choose as your good friend,
Who you can easily feel happy for.
If you're visual,
Get a picture of them in your mind's eye.
Picture of them and a lot of happiness.
If they're presently not happy,
You can go back to a past memory of them,
Something you know that happened to them that they were delighted about.
And the traditional support phrase,
Continue to be happy and content.
So we repeat that silently while you picture this individual trying to breathe in and out with your heart area.
Just stay with a picture of this close friend,
Repeating the phrase,
Continue to be happy and content.
I personally just use the word continue.
I find that a little easier for me,
But you can do whatever works for you best.
And when you've had maybe 10 minutes or you're very close and in direct contact with that sense or picture of this good friend and you're feeling Muddita,
You're feeling empathetic joy in your heart area,
Let your awareness rest directly with Muddita,
With empathetic joy,
Just see what it's like to be in direct contact with that.
Pause.
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